A Plane Ticket and A Wedding Ring
by Brown Eyes Parker
Summary: Somebody had sent her a well-worn wedding band and an airline ticket to Paris, France via Van Pelt. For the Livejournal Mini Bang.


**A Plane Ticket and A Wedding Ring**

**A Jane/Lisbon Story**

**By Brown Eyes Parker**

**Summary: **

**Somebody had sent her a well-worn wedding band and an airline ticket to Paris, France via Van Pelt. For the Livejournal Mini Bang.**

**I'd like to thank Tromana for beta-ing this for me**. **I couldn't have done it without her!**

**Disclaimer: **

**I own nothing!**

**.**

"Maybe it's time to get away," Patrick Jane said to Teresa Lisbon as they ate orange creamsicles in a semi-deserted park. Happy families surrounded them, parents chasing after their kids, encouraging them to pick up their trash and dispose of it. Jane took a lick of his treat as he waited for a response.

"Yeah?" Lisbon asked, wrapping up what was left of her frozen treat; she had never been a huge fan of orange-flavored anything, and on the heels of Jane's news it was suddenly sickeningly sweet.

With each passing day, he had seemed to be healing well. He had stayed around with no hint of a breakdown. She had taken it for granted that he would never need to go away, she had thought catching Red John and seeing him would be enough for him, that he wouldn't need anything else.

"We got Red John almost six months ago and now that his sentencing is over, I think it'll be good to get away," Jane said, breaking into her thoughts.

"Honestly, I think that is a good idea." Lisbon's lips twisted. "Of course, we won't close as many cases without you here. But we'll make do; we always did before you came to the CBI."

Jane's own lips twitched. "Yeah, I'll miss you too."

The creamsicle had melted onto her hands, leaving them a little sticky. She rubbed her fingers together as she carefully considered what to say next.

"Where will you go?" she finally asked.

He shrugged. "I have a couple options, but I'm really not sure yet."

Lisbon nodded and got to her feet, stretching slightly. The last family was making their way to their minivan, leaving the park completely empty, sans them.

"I think it's time to call it a night," she said. "Walk me to my car?"

"Gladly," Jane replied, standing as well. He took her trash and threw it away with his own before falling into step with her.

"How long are you going to be gone?" Lisbon asked, glancing at him.

"Not sure yet, don't worry though I _will_ be coming back," Jane answered, he saw her face and smiled mischievously. "Or maybe I'll just send for you to come to me."

"Then when are you going to leave?" Lisbon asked, ignoring his comment about sending for her. "I need to know, for work purposes."

"Maybe at the end of next week," he said. "Are you really that eager to get rid of me?"

"I told you Jane, I need to know for work purposes," Lisbon retorted. "Well here's my car, I should be going now. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Jane replied. "Thanks for the nice evening."

A smile broke over Lisbon's face. "No problem. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

The next week passed by quickly, and then Jane was gone. He and Lisbon exchanged goodbyes in her office the night before he left. There were no parties or tearful goodbyes at the airport. There wasn't any fanfare, or huge show. He slipped away quietly, and without telling anybody but Lisbon that he was leaving.

**.**

"Boss, this is for you," Grace Van Pelt said, handing Lisbon a medium-sized envelope. "It was in my mailbox this morning."

"Any idea who it's from?" Lisbon asked.

"If the handwriting's anything to go by, I'd say it was from Jane," Van Pelt replied.

Lisbon's pulse quickened, it had been two months since Jane left and she hadn't had any contact with him, except for a quick text to say that he had gotten to his destination safely.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"I'm almost one-hundred percent positive that it's from him," Van Pelt said with an affirmative nod.

"Thank you for seeing that I got this," Lisbon said, smiling at the younger girl.

There was a long pause before Van Pelt realized that her boss probably wanted to be left alone. So, she pushed her curiosity aside and returned to the bullpen.

When Lisbon was sure that Van Pelt was gone, she ripped the envelope open and shook the contents out onto her desk. A piece of paper fluttered to the table, it was followed by a soft clanking sound. She took a sip of coffee and studied the items curiously.

It didn't make any sense at all, somebody, maybe Jane, had sent her a well-worn wedding band and an airline ticket to Paris, France via Van Pelt. She checked the envelope for a note or a card of some sort, but came up empty. Her curiosity turned to frustration as she tossed it aside with a heavy sigh.

She took another sip of coffee before picking the ring up and examining it further. Eventually, she concluded that it was indeed Jane's ring. She would know it anywhere; she was so used to seeing it on his finger. Lisbon chewed her lip thoughtfully and put it back down on her desk. He was being insufferable again and not cluing her into what he was doing, or why he was doing it for that matter. She had always hated second-guessing the man.

Something Jane had said the week before he had left floated through her mind.

_Maybe I'll just send for you._

She wondered if he was really keeping to his word and sending for her. If he was, she was going to have to make one of the hardest decisions in her life. She was going to have to make the decision to drop everything she knew and jet off to Paris with no good reason to go in the first place. Or she had the choice to stay in California and always wonder why Jane wanted her there in the first place.

Her hand hovered over the ticket for a moment, she told herself that Paris wouldn't be forever, that Jane had told her that he was planning on coming back to the States one day.

She stopped thinking, stopped trying to figure out what was going on as she picked up the ticket, then found her keys. For once in her life, she wasn't going to think. She was going to give into impulse and try not to think about the consequences.

**.**

Jane was sitting in a cute, little outdoor café, a beautiful person among beautiful people, and the only patron in the place with a cup of tea in front of him. Everybody else around him was sipping on glasses of Bordeaux wine. He was scribbling away in his journal, totally unaware to his surroundings, oblivious to the fact that she had just taken the seat across from him. Lisbon cleared her throat and waited a beat before gently brushing his hand with two of her fingers. His head snapped up, and when blue eyes met green, his face lit into a smile.

"You came."

She returned his smile and slid her carry-on bag off of her shoulder. "Of course I came. I'm surprised that you doubted I would."

"What made you come?" Jane asked.

Lisbon dug something out of her jacket pocket and placed it in front of him. "I thought maybe you'd be missing this."

He shook his head and picked the ring up. Taking her wrist, he dropped it into her hand. "No, no, it belongs to _you_ now."

"I don't understand. Why would you give it to _me_?" she asked.

"Why _not _give it to you?" he answered.

She sighed in frustration. "Fine then. If you're not going to tell me why you gave me your wedding ring, can you at least tell me why I'm here?"

Jane hesitated before offering her an uncharacteristically shy smile. "Because I tried the whole flirting and dating thing again, and I realized that all the women had the same problem."

"Oh yeah, and what was that?"

"None of them were you," he answered simply.

Lisbon opened her mouth to reply and shut it again. She was speechless, all these years she had been certain everything between her and Jane was just a deep friendship. All the times that her mind had strayed into _the more than friends_ territory, she had quickly reined all inappropriate thoughts in, telling her traitorous mind that just being friends with Jane was better than not having a relationship with him at all.

But here she was in Paris, France with Jane sitting in front of her, a quasi-confession on his lips. He had taken his wedding ring off; it was something she had been sure he would never do. Not even if he ever moved past his wife and daughter's death, and realized that he could love again. Not only had he taken his ring off, but he had sent it to her.

"Say something," Jane said. "Please."

She hesitated, she was still unsure of what to say. Somewhere down the street a familiar song began to play, saving her from having to figure out saying exactly what he wanted to hear.

She quirked her eyebrows and looked at Jane inquisitively. "Isn't this—?"

"They play it for the tourists," Jane explained.

Lisbon nodded. "Oh…"

Somebody came to refill Jane's tea cup. They asked Lisbon if they could bring her something, but she declined the offer, and watched Jane as he sipped his fresh drink. She couldn't see his lips, but she could tell from his eyes that he was smiling at her again.

She still wasn't sure why she had come to France in the first place, she wasn't sure if she was ready to address the issues she knew she and Jane had been dancing around for so long. But as she returned his smile, she knew that she was ready to find out.

**_The End_**


End file.
